Vote means change in the air in Encinitas

Two challengers, appointed incumbent win council seats

Two challengers who vowed to improve civility at City Hall, make government processes more open and limit development easily captured two of the three Encinitas City Council seats up for grabs in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results Wednesday morning.

The third spot went to a recently appointed council member rather than longtime incumbent Jerome Stocks.

“It’s pretty clear that the folks in the city were ready for something different,” winning candidate Tony Kranz, a printing company account executive, said.

Kranz, who placed second out of the nine people seeking the three council seats on the ballot, ran with Lisa Shaffer, who placed first in the race.

Shaffer said Wednesday morning that she believes the results reflect two trends. First, voters wanted change and backed her as a candidate, in part because she shared former councilwoman Maggie Houlihan’s values and had her endorsement. And second, she said, voters overwhelming didn’t want Stocks to remain in office, finding the negative mailers his supporters sent out offensive.

“They wanted a positive message and they didn’t want Jerome personally,” she said.

Shaffer’s easy win was anticipated by many City Hall observers well before the election, but the results for several other candidates came as a surprise to some. Some forecasts had called for the second council seat to go Councilman Mark Muir and the third seat to either Kranz or Stocks.

Instead, Kranz solidly captured the second seat, placing far ahead of Stocks and collecting 18.46 percent of the vote.

The battle for the third spot ended up being between Stocks and Muir, a retired city fire chief who was appointed to the council after Houlihan’s death. Muir, who couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday morning, came out ahead, capturing 14.33 percent to Stocks’ 12.7 percent.

Stocks said Wednesday morning that he saw the voting results as indication that voters felt his 12 years in office were long enough, commenting that “it’s out with the old and in with the new.”

“I am in fact the second-longest-serving council member in the history of the city and I’m real proud of that,” he said.

He added that many major projects he supported are now under construction, including the including Encinitas Community Park, the improvements to Moonlight Beach, the Santa Fe Road railroad grade separation and the Cardiff fire station.

In recent months his opponents have characterized Stocks as a verbally abusive, saying he acts like a bully on the council. On Wednesday morning, several supporters of Shaffer and Kranz said his behavor clearly affected the election. As an example, they pointed to the difference in the way Muir and Stocks responded after they were caught on video posting their campaign signs before they could do so legally. Muir apologized, Stocks did not.

Kranz and Shaffer said that Stocks’ fourth-place finish wasn’t a surprise to them. Shaffer noted the popularity of the “Dump Stocks” bumper stickers and signs, which were put out by a political action group supported by the publisher of the Coast News.